New Delhi, June 8: There seems to be a twist in the tale in the Ishrat Jahan encounter case. The Home Ministry for the want of evidence has not granted permission to prosecute former Intelligence Bureau official Rajinder Kumar.

According to Central bureau of Investigation (CBI), the killing of Jahan and three others in a fake encounter in 2004 was result of joint conspiracy of Gujarat police and the IB.

The Central Bureau of Investigation which was handed over the case had sought sanction from the Home Ministry to prosecute Kumar, but the same was denied for the want of evidence. [MHA seeks more info from CBI on Ishrat fake encounter case]

The Ishrat Jahan case had snow balled into a controversy with several persons stating that she was not a terrorist and the killing by the Gujarat police was part of a fake encounter. CBI allegation against Rajinder Kumar: The CBI had filed a supplementary chargesheet in which it had named former IB officer Kumar. The CBI had accused Kumar and other officers of murder.

The chargesheet even questioned the authenticity of the operation and termed the killing as fake and stage managed. This claim was however, contested by several police officials and even Kumar terming the CBI probe as wrong.

The CBI had alleged that Kumar provided the weapons for the encounter. It was alleged that at the scene of the killing the officers had planted an AK-56 to make it appear as though the encounter was genuine. Ishrat Jahan a 19 year old girl was killed along with three other men at Gujarat in the year 2004.

The police had claimed that there was intelligence reports suggesting that all four of them were part of a terrorism plot aimed at assassinating Narendra Modi. What Kumar had said: Rejecting the allegations made by the CBI, Kumar had termed the entire case filed against him and others as false.

There was specific intelligence about the four persons including Ishrat, he had said. All of them were part of a terror plot and hence action had to be taken. We are all human beings and do not target innocent persons he had said. He had also told the CBI that there was no criminality in the action taken by all of them. The entire operation was bonafide, he had also said. I have done a lot to protect national interest and this was a counter terrorism operation he also said.